Monday, March 10, 2014

Jan 28 - Feb 2

Hello everyone! This week has been a wonderful week here in California :) I am loving this new transfer! My companion Sister Green and I get along so great! She is a hard working missionary and I am learning lots from her and I hope she is learning alot from me. She isn't use to teaching so she says she is learning alot from me in that sense which makes me giggle a bit cause I am far from being the perfect teacher. I'll take the compliment though!

Jan 28- This morning we had district meeting with our new district. My district leader is Elder Robins and he and his comp Elder Porter are serving in my last ward San Sevaine and we also have the Highland elders, Elder Bowman and Elder Hair. I was excited to have my friends in my district! It will be a little tough hearing about San Sevaine because I tend to compare myself but I am working on that! We then went and ate lunch at home and then went out and I took sister Green to go and meet the bishop and auxillary leaders in the ward and we tried some LAs and texted all of our investigators letting them know we have a new sister and that she wants to meet all of them soon. We got many responses from our gators and we were able to set up a quick time for them to meet her aside from the lessons we had planned already. She was able to meet Diana Dire which was good. We had dinner at the Nibargers and they had their neighbors who are non members come up for dessert which we were super excited to hear about and meet them! We shared a little message and just talked and got to know the family. The Nibargers are planning to have us over for dinner again and to have a FHE with them and their friends as well! We are super excited to see our members be so missionary minded! We then read the kids their bedtime story and read scriptures with them. I love that family so much!

Jan 29- We were busy with lessons today! Sister Green isn't use to all of this teaching and is loving every second of it! So am I and we teach really well together which is nice. We met a LA and her family and were able to set up a lesson with them because they were on their way out. We had a lesson with Barbara, we met with her before Christmas but she was too busy to meet with us during the holidays so we finally got in touch with her. We taught her part of the Restoration and she loved it. We gave her the talk that Elder Holland gave this past conference because she is struggling with depression so we are going to follow up on that next week. Diana Dire was able to come to that lesson with us. We then had a recent convert lesson with Diana Dire and we taught her about the Plan of Salvation and was able to answer her questions she had. I was able to learn a few things as well, you know the spirit is there in a lesson when the teacher learns something from that lesson. We then went to Tyler Johnsons and had a little follow up lesson about him going to church and just a meet and greet with sister Green. He told us he got an answer and is going back to church!!! He is going to the Highland ward because the time works better for him and he knows the elders there. We were okay with that because we were happy to hear that he got an answer. We then had dinner delivered to us that night and we had to hurry and eat and go to Young Womens. They asked us if we would come and share with the young women about our decission to serve and to just answer any questions they had. That was really fun and great for the girls!! It was funny because sister Green and I would say the exact same thing at the same time and finish each others sentances, everyone thought it was so cute and knew we got along really well! For a second it felt like I had Morgan with me and that felt nice to have again!

Jan 30- We went and visited LAs today but no one was home so we tried some potential investigators and no one was home either! We hate days like these but we still try to stay motivated as much as we can and try our very best. That night for dinner we ate with the cooks which was fun and very yummy! We then went on splits with the R.S that night and I was able to visit a LA Jerrie Rosser and talk with her. She is an amazing lady and has some health issues and family problems as well. She knows she needs to come back to church but says she doesn't have the time or energy to do that right now. At the end of the visit she did ask if she could go out with us missionaries which made me super happy to hear! Baby steps!!

Jan 31- This morning we met with Sister Diebold! Love her so much! Sister Green met her and we talked for awhile and of course she had to add Sister Greens mom on facebook and get her phone number haha We then went home and weekly planned until our lesson with Jane Martin. We met her at Panera and was excited to see us and to meet sister Green. She is so funny cause she calls us by our first names and it takes me a minute to realize that she is talking to me. We taught her the Restoration and helped her understand the need of the Priesthood and Prophets. She loved it and said she wants to meet with us again but after her exams which is the second week of Feb. We were a little bummed to hear that we have to wait so long to see her. We then had dinner with the Pelina family.

Feb 1- We had a crazy day! none of our plans worked out for the day but it was still a good day. We were able to meet with one of our LAs Boni Johnson which was good cause I never have met her. She is super busy with schooling but her daughter wants to come back to church so hopefully they will come! We went and rode our bikes! sister Green was so excited and loved it! I however had a huge blonde moment and forgot the keys to our bike locks so we had to walk home and get them and then our member drove us back to where we left them which was nice. We got them and rode them back home. Then went and did service for CeCe Carpenter a 90yr old lady in our ward. We picked her lemons from her lemon tree, we just love her! We had dinner at the yates home that night.

Feb 2- This morning we met with our Ward Mission Leader at 8:30 am. We are trying this new time to see if this will work better. We then had ward council and church. Sister Green was able to meet many people in our ward. We also got a new senior couple in our ward, they just got here this week and are from Alabama and will be here for 12 months. They are super cute and very friendly. They were asking me many questions on what they are suppose to do but i had no clue cause i haven't ever worked with Senior missionaries before, I just told them what we usually do haha. That night we were able to get 3 new investigators!! They are a family from Hati and are living here. The mom Messala has 4 kids but only 2 of them are here in the US. the other two are in Denmark with their dad but she is trying to get them here because the parents are splitting up. Her son Ben is investigating and he is 14 and her daughter Lauren sits in on the lessons too but she is only 7 so one more year for her! Her sister Venessa is investigating too and she has a little daughter who is 2. We went over and talked about the family and how important the family unit is in our church. Messala said this was an answer to her prayers and loved that we came over! It was a pass off lesson so we are super excited to have them in our area so that we will be able to teach them! We love them so much!!

That was our busy week! I love being a missionary it is the best thing for me right now! I am learning and growing in many ways that I never thought I could. It is hard work but is so worth it! I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!!